1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to novel packet relay protocol for Wi-Fi networks. More particularly, it relates to a layer 2 packet relay protocol (L2Relay) to improve the performance and extend the range of the network.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wi-Fi has been widely adopted in homes and offices. One challenge that often arises is the range of the Wi-Fi network, because the Wi-Fi interfaces operate under strict transmission power limits such that nodes on the edge of the network often get degraded or even interrupted service.
This problem can be alleviated to a degree by commercial range extenders such as Netgear Universal Wi-Fi Range Extender WN3000RP-100NAS, which extend the range of the network by capturing and rebroadcasting the transmitted packets. However, it is known that the range extenders may reduce network throughput because the node may be close to the Access Point (AP) and may be able to receive from the AP directly such that the rebroadcasting of the packets is unnecessary. This problem may be further exacerbated, for example, when the range extender rebroadcasts the packets at a low rate due to poor channel conditions between the range extender and the node.
There are many academic research prototypes that rely on node cooperation to improve the network performance, such as PRO, Soft-Repeater, RCMAC, DAFMAC, rDCF, RAMA, and CoopMAC. While they run more intelligent algorithms and protocols than the commercial range extenders, they all require modifications to the nodes and the AP. For ordinary users, modifying the AP or the device drivers in their machines can be an intimidating task which limits the applicability of these technologies.